Print

[Optimus_Primal]

Hi

 

Our estate currently has a large number of printers, which include multifunctional devices (which are based in departments work areas) on top of classroom and office printers and the usual large scale photocopiers in the reprographics room.

 

We are looking at changing our print company and potentially changing the organisation of the printers. I would remove a large number of printers however my predecessor purchases INKJET multifunctional devices, and as a result they only print in the region of 18ppm double sided! As a teacher a refuse to use them for that reason, so I am not prepared to inflict that on the rest of the staff as their only way to print.

 

Does any one have any good contacts?

 

Cheers

[ordeology]

Sounds like you need to work out strategic locations for MFP's and remove all the little printers and the inkjet multi functional devices. Yes staff will probably complain they have to walk down the corridor to release a print job so it will mean a culture change. It is so much easier to manage a few strategically placed MFP's than a wide range of inkjet multi functional devices, not to mention probably more cost effective.

 

I was part of a project in on of my previous jobs which saw the cutting of a large number of little printers and replace them with MFP's in key locations. This worked well coupled together with a print management solution.

[Optimus_Primal]

Sounds like you need to work out strategic locations for MFP's and remove all the little printers and the inkjet multi functional devices. Yes staff will probably complain they have to walk down the corridor to release a print job so it will mean a culture change. It is so much easier to manage a few strategically placed MFP's than a wide range of inkjet multi functional devices, not to mention probably more cost effective.

I was part of a project in on of my previous jobs which saw the cutting of a large number of little printers and replace them with MFP's in key locations. This worked well coupled together with a print management solution.

 

I have no issue with removing them but the issue is the current devices we have simply are too slow. You going from a Laserjet that can pump out sheets double sided pretty quickly to something that is just not appropriate.

I have the locations in mind its just a case of costings.

 

What MFP's did you use?

[ordeology]

Set the scene we were a trust and the school I worked at back then as a L1 technician had around 100 printers we then moved to a new BSF school and put in 8 Ricoh 45ppm MFP's purchased outright and had them for around 6 years. We then re-tendered as a trust and moved to Konica Minolta on a lease with 45ppm MFP's and then later asked them to put in PaperCut for us as well. We also defaulted everyone to mono and duplex.

[DrBeaker]

I still have Inkjet printers and Mono 6050 printers that I have to support.

 

I was originally told they were getting rid of them - I've not heard anything else since.

 

Staff here - still whinge "Oh, I haven't got a printer" - I've heard it 3x times today even! It's got to the point where it falls on deaf ears. At what point does it become laziness and a problem with staff attitude (which is a line management issue) that they simply cannot be bothered to get off their backsides and go collect their printout.

 

Yes - I have a printer in my office (one of the nearly 15-20x year old 6050 with a "replace fuser" that keeps message nagging me). However I consider it a privilege as the only IT person here. However I have also had no printers previously in other roles and had to use an MFD, it does not bother me. We know IT people seem to get the worst gear

 

What does bother is the sense of entitlement and attitude when the decision is made above my pay grade, for shared resources and reduced costs but it's IT who get the blame for decisions they haven't made - over a damm printer.

[ordeology]

I had similar arguments before I left the trust for pastures new... I always put a stopper on new desktop laserjet printer requests only to get a message a couple of days later from C level saying can we order a desktop laserjet for this person. I did however make sure any new desktop laserjets were purchased through our print provider and if possible the lease length was adjusted to coincide with our main fleet.

[Optimus_Primal]

We own all of the photocopiers 5 in total along with the 13 Epson MFPs (EPSON WF-R8590) and all other printers (an assortment of HP, Brother and Ricoh). We will have the same issue with people who say the must have a printer and they will get it because that is just the nature of the beast unfortunately. However I think i can remove a large chunk of the machines that are departmental providing i have decent MFP units.

 

We use Papercut and have already set all printing to duplex and black and white for the savings.

 

Do you have a contract for the toners with a print company or do you do that all yourself?

[ordeology]

Yeah so it was a managed print contract direct with the manufacturer as we went all in with Konica. It was a cost per copy charge which covered maintenance, and the toner was self ordering so never really had to think about that. Only had to do a bit of work when a member of staff said toner is empty... Yes which colour and which copier? I can't remember what the cost per copy was mind you as I moved on from that place nearly 6 months ago.